I adapted my recipe from one yooper posted that was just banana wine, link here. My process was the same oh bringing the bananas to a boil and then simmering for 30 minutes. Cool water was added then honey and the bags squeezed for liqour. I just dosed it with campden and will use D-47.
18.5 lbs Very ripe bananas
11lb generic store bought honey
3 handfuls of golden raisins (its all I had around)
Water to 5.5 gallons
Brix=23 SG=1.096

Here are the bananas thawed in the bag

Them in the pot of water heating up

Finally them cooling down after the simmer

I will update with pics hopefully tomorrow of when I pitch the yeast and as this moves along.

looks great, I always thought banana was a no no when it came to fermenting.

beautiful color too.

Yes, I agree, it does look excellent in the bottle like that.

As for banana being a no-no, well it would seem that the best way to use it is, indeed to boil the fruit i.e. just chop them into chunks, skin and all, then bring to boil and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes. Then just let it cool, before straining the fruit debris out and the pulp can be squeezed for the remaining liquid.

Then it's the liquid that's fermented.

I'm not sure if that technique is to do with just extracting the flavour, or whether it's converting the starches in banana so that they don't cause hazing problems (which would require amylase to get rid of).

But as a no-no ? Definitely not. I had 2 pints of Wells Banana Bread beer with my evening meal yesterday. It was delightful.........

__________________

"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Wow, good to see its come out ok! I remember using this thread as insperation for my own attempt at this. I decided to age mine in the bottle so is rather untested but I had a small amount left over after bottling that I kept in the fridge under a vaccuvin wine saver. The banana has just about come back, though as you said its subtle, more like an after taste, but its still not smooth yet. That said it did ferment quite warm so I'm expecting it to need lots of aging!